Congratulations — we’ve all made it through yet another orbit around the sun. Although that’s the most accurate definition of a new year, our annual celebrations seem to have very little to do with astronomy and a whole lot more to with change and fresh starts. A lot of us view 1 January as the perfect chance to put behind us an entire year, whether it is full of successes or failures, and reflect on these experiences. Even though the turn of a new year technically doesn’t differ at all from any other midnight, we also see it as a chance to open up new chapters. We are all at least somewhat aware of that fact, but we still tend to believe that there’s something special about a new year that will help us enact real change, on whatever level we seek. And so, we set resolutions.

The psychology behind setting resolutions has its roots in “the universal human desire to have some control over what lies ahead, because the future is unsettlingly unknowable,” David Ropeik writes for Psychology Today. “Not knowing what’s to come means we don’t know what we need to know to keep ourselves safe. To counter that worrisome powerlessness, we do things to take control. We resolve to diet and exercise, to quit smoking, and to start saving.” The fact that 88% of people fail to achieve the goals they have set out is neither here nor there; resolutions give us the feeling that we have control, a purpose, and ultimately something to look forward to.